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[0:00] We'll be reading Matthew 5, verses 13 through 26. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?

[0:24] It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

[0:37] You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket.

[0:52] But on the lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

[1:16] Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

[1:30] For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.

[1:49] Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

[2:05] For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

[2:32] You have heard that the ancients were told, You shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.

[2:47] But I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.

[3:01] And whoever says to his brother, You good for nothing, shall be guilty before the supreme court. And whoever says, You fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

[3:22] Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering.

[3:38] There, before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

[3:54] Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

[4:17] Truly, I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.

[4:28] What in the world is that all about? You shall not come out until you have paid the last cent.

[4:39] I don't know whether you are aware of it or not, but this is perhaps the only verse that is appealed to by our friends in the Roman Catholic Church to establish the concept of purgatory.

[4:52] This is a verse that they point to. There are all kinds of really strange sayings in this passage. And what about that one, verse 25, What is that about?

[5:16] What in the world does that mean? Well, the reason that these are so strange to us is because they are all spoken of against a Mideastern or an Oriental backdrop.

[5:28] These things reflect the culture as it existed at the time, and it deals with things that these people were very familiar with in their everyday responsibilities of living.

[5:41] But it's almost like a foreign language to us. Well, in fact, it was foreign to begin with. It was written either in Aramaic or in Greek. So there is a language barrier that has to be bridged.

[5:53] And it was written 2,000 years ago. So there is a historical bridge that has to be built. And there is a geographical bridge that has to be built because these things didn't take place in New York City.

[6:09] They took place in Israel, many miles removed from here. So all of those things have to be taken into consideration, and we have to find out what the present-day equivalent is of those terms that were used, and then transfer it over to our culture in order to get an understanding of it.

[6:27] And I have two fascinating resources that I'm going to make available to you, both of whom I will be quoting as we work through this Sermon on the Mount, because it is a very, very important passage, and it is also very frequently misunderstood.

[6:44] It is reminiscent, and would you allow me to reminisce myself just a little bit and turn to Mark's Gospel, Chapter 1.

[6:56] And I'd like to go back some 40-plus years with you to our early days when we were meeting at Roosevelt School in North Limestone.

[7:08] And by the way, there's nothing there now about the school. It's a new building that has been built. But this is where Grace Bible Church had its beginnings in 1970 and 1971.

[7:21] And as a new pastor, and if I'm not mistaken, at the time I think I just started out as a part-time pastor because we didn't have a building, we didn't have official recognition or organization.

[7:33] So I began as your part-time pastor, and the passage that we began dealing with in our very earliest days there, it's the Gospel according to Mark.

[7:45] And one reason I chose Mark was because I was convinced that it being only 16 chapters, I could get through it rather quickly. It took a couple of years, but eventually we did get through it.

[8:00] But we came upon a very fascinating subject that has just engrossed my thinking so much ever since. And if you're looking at Mark, Chapter 1, I just want to read verse 14 and 15 because it's tying in with our message today and the messages that we will be bringing for some time.

[8:20] Verse 14, And after John had been taken into custody, this is John the Baptist, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel or the good news of God or the good news from God and saying, The time is fulfilled.

[8:43] That's another way of saying, this is it. This is an idea whose time has come. This is it. And the kingdom of God is at hand.

[8:58] That means you could almost reach out and touch it. It is very, very near. That was the burden of Jesus' message.

[9:10] It was the burden of John the Baptist's message. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's so close. It's really close. It is almost here, but not quite.

[9:22] It is at hand, which means it is nearby. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. repent, repent, and believe in the Gospel.

[9:35] And the thing that really set me to thinking as your pastor in those early days was what did Jesus mean by that when he said, repent, and believe in the Gospel.

[9:49] and what did the people to whom he was speaking understand him to mean when he said, repent, and believe in the Gospel.

[10:02] And frankly, that was a head-scratcher because I was thinking in the Gospel. The Gospel. And he talks about the good news and the good news of God and believing in the Gospel.

[10:16] Well, we know what the Gospel is because Paul the Apostle defined that so many times when he said, I delivered unto you that which, first of all, I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and Paul identified that as the Gospel.

[10:40] That is the good news. Christ died for our sins. But wait a minute. That's what Paul said.

[10:53] But Paul said that years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ was a historic fact. But it wasn't a historic fact when Jesus said this here.

[11:07] When he told his audience, repent and believe in the Gospel. This was something these people were called upon to do. of what did that Gospel consist?

[11:21] And the typical answer you'll get from most believers today is, well, there's only one Gospel. No, there isn't. That is an assumption that we ought not to make.

[11:33] It's one that I've made for years. There's only one Gospel. And that's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is that what Christ is telling these people to believe in?

[11:43] No. No. No. Did you get that? That isn't what he's telling them at all.

[11:57] Then, what is this Gospel? It is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God coming from Heaven to Earth and being established here, and you repent and believe that good news.

[12:10] And that's the good news they'd all been waiting for. And by the way, don't confuse the Kingdom of Heaven coming to Earth with the dwelling place and abode of God in Heaven where believers go when they die, absent from the body, present with Christ in Heaven.

[12:29] Where is Christ now? He's in Heaven. Where do you go to be with Him? You go to be with Him and you'll never be separated from Him. But that's not the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is on Earth.

[12:41] It's on this planet. We now have an Earth that is in complete chaos and disarray as a result of the fall.

[12:51] Everything came crashing down, including mankind. So we all die. Everything dies. Plants die. Animals die.

[13:02] People die. Everything dies. We are under the reign of death. And that's why Christ came to reverse that. And He did. He lifted the curse.

[13:14] And He made available to us as the down payment of what He has begun, the Spirit of God dwelling in us, which every believer receives at the point of salvation. And that saves, that regenerates, that makes new your human spirit.

[13:31] That's the real you. On the inside, you were changed. But it didn't do a thing for your outside. If you did not have 20-20 vision before you came to Christ and you wear glasses, after you're saved, guess what?

[13:47] You still need the glasses. Didn't change your eyesight. Didn't change what condition your liver's in. Didn't change the clogging of your arteries. Didn't do any of those things.

[13:58] And the reason it didn't is because the body is not redeemed. The Spirit is redeemed, and that's the part that is regenerated that goes to be with the Lord when you die.

[14:09] That Spirit exits the body and goes to be with the Lord. The body goes to the grave. But the body is going to be regenerated too. According to Romans chapter 8 and 1 Corinthians 15, when this corruptible puts on incorruption, this mortal puts on immortality, then, and only then, will death be swallowed up in victory.

[14:36] So, even though our redemption and salvation has been paid for in its entirety by the work of Christ on the cross, when he said it is finished, that's what he finished.

[14:50] The price has been paid in its entirety, but it has not been fully applied, and it will be fully applied to wit the redemption of our bodies.

[15:02] So, we are still a work in process. We are only halfway redeemed, but the Spirit of God placed within us is God's earnest of the Spirit.

[15:13] That's God's down payment that he will accomplish and complete that which he has begun. He knows we're not done. God knows we're not finished.

[15:24] But we have the Spirit of God as the down payment or the promise that what he has begun, he will complete. And that's what we look forward to in the resurrection. So, what we're talking about here is not what these people had in mind.

[15:39] They were thinking entirely of the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom, because then righteousness will cover the earth, Christ will be, the Messiah will be enthroned in Jerusalem, and righteousness will prevail all over the world, and Israel's enemies will all be done away with, and it will be a time of rebirth of the nation, and everything will be wonderful.

[16:02] It will be utopia. It will be Eden returned before the fall. That's what he's talking about here when he says the gospel.

[16:15] I can assure you Jesus did not say, now look, all of you Jews, you must understand that I am here as your Messiah, but I am going to die on a Roman cross to pay for the sins of the world, and your sins will be placed on my shoulders when I'm on that cross, and that's the good news, because you are going to be free, because I'm going to pay your penalty.

[16:38] Now what I want you to do is I want all of you to believe that in advance of its happening. You know, apparently that's the way some people would read this passage.

[16:49] That is a far, far cry from the truth. These people did not have even the slightest suspicion that when the Messiah came, he would end up on a Roman cross, nor did they have any idea about a resurrection from the dead.

[17:08] That was just completely out of their thinking. They didn't believe. People say, and I don't know how many times I've heard this, and I know it well because I used to say it. We look back on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as a historical reality, and we put our faith in that historical fact.

[17:32] But those who were on the other side of the cross, beginning way back in Genesis with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they didn't have that historical frame of reference because it was thousands of years in the future.

[17:47] So you know what they did? They all placed their faith and trust in the coming of the Messiah and his death, burial, and resurrection on the cross.

[17:58] And so they looked forward in faith to that happening, God fulfilling that promise. No, they didn't. And there's no indication that they did. In fact, the very apostles who were closest to Christ never accepted that idea and never believed it, never entertained it for a moment, and even rebuked Jesus when he talked about it.

[18:25] So they were not looking forward. All they were looking forward to was the Messiah establishing the kingdom. They didn't have a clue that the price he would have to pay for that crown would be the cross.

[18:40] Never entered their mind. So when Jesus says, believe in the gospel, he's not talking about the gospel of the grace of God that we preach today that is predicated upon the sacrificial death of Christ.

[18:54] They believed in the good news of the promise of the coming of the kingdom and it being at hand. And let me explain this. I've done it before, but it's been a while.

[19:05] The word gospel, often translated good news, is not exclusively a biblical word.

[19:16] The word gospel, euangelion, from which we get the word evangelical and evangelized, the word euangelion is a word that was in use long before Jesus ever came on scene.

[19:29] It was a word that was used in everyday common discourse. It was a word that meant good news. And it was always the context that defined what good news are you talking about.

[19:42] It could be good news about anything. Have you heard the gospel about Mrs. Smith? No. What? She had her baby. Really? Was it a boy or a girl? Well, I don't know, but I just know for sure that it was the gospel.

[19:56] Now, we don't use the word gospel that way, but if you did, you would be accurate. You might not communicate. People wouldn't, you call that the gospel. That's not the gospel.

[20:06] The gospel, no, no, the gospel simply means good news about anything. If your son came home with straight A's on his grade card, that's the gospel of your son's academic achievement.

[20:21] So, keep in mind that the term is to be defined by the context in which it is used. And here, it is clearly that which is at hand. it is the gospel of the kingdom.

[20:33] The gospel of the kingdom. So, in 1971, over 40 years ago, we began an exposition of the gospel of Mark verse by verse, and we found a distinguishing feature of those messages focused upon this theme in verses 14 and 15 of Mark 1, the kingdom of God coming.

[20:56] And let me tell you, that series of messages for your pastor set in motion a whole different way of thinking and approaching the scriptures.

[21:06] And for the first time, I really began to see the enormous Jewishness of what we call the New Testament.

[21:20] Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all recordings given by the Spirit of God that reflect a Jewish setting, a Jewish background, a Jewish understanding.

[21:38] It is all Jewish. Don't Christianize the Gospels. They are Jewish. And to prove it, all you have to do is look at the activities and attitudes of our Lord when he functioned during his earthly lifespan as reflected in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

[21:58] Jesus never came on the scene after he was baptized by John. He never came on the scene and said, all right, everybody, listen up. The Old Testament is over.

[22:09] I'm here now. This is the New Covenant. None of that. He functioned fully and completely under the law of Moses as an observant Jew.

[22:19] He was circumcised. He kept the Sabbath. He kept the feast days. He did everything that a loyal Jew was supposed to do because he was functioning under the Jewish dispensation.

[22:31] There is nothing Christian about the Gospels. Nothing. There are great truths in the Gospels for Christians and things in the Gospels that we ought to imitate and emulate and we will see those as we move on through the Sermon on the Mount.

[22:48] But these are not Christian. They are Jewish. They are Jewish with Christian applications. But there is a huge difference between the interpretation and understanding of the text and the application of the text.

[23:03] A huge difference. So, this kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven was the all compelling issue of the Jews prior to the first coming of Christ and it still is.

[23:21] it will not be realized until the second coming of Christ. The Jews lived and longed for the coming of the kingdom and all the rest of the world was oblivious to it.

[23:37] This thing called the kingdom of heaven that we find so dramatically highlighted, particularly in the Gospels and the book of Acts, had never even occurred to Gentiles.

[23:49] if you were not a Jew, you didn't know anything about this, you didn't care anything about this, you were totally oblivious to this, you just considered it an aspect of the Jews' religion and went on.

[24:01] Unless you were a Jew, familiar with the law of Moses and the prophets, you didn't even know about this. And if you heard about it, you wouldn't care. You wouldn't connect the dots, it wouldn't mean anything to you.

[24:13] But to the Jew, it was everything. they lived, slept, ate, and drank. The Messiah, the Messiah, the Messiah.

[24:25] Everything was the Messiah. Because when the Messiah comes, he's going to fix everything. It will be wonderful. So they lived and longed for this Messiah.

[24:39] To the Jew, he would be the king over all the earth. He will set up and establish this long-awaited kingdom of heaven, and he will bring the kingdom with him.

[24:52] Several things must be true of the Messiah. And every Jew worth his salt knew what those things were. When the Messiah comes, how will we know?

[25:04] How will we identify him? First of all, prophecy made it quite clear. The book of Genesis, chapter 49, 9, that when the Messiah comes, he must be of the tribe of Judah.

[25:22] No other tribe, no, no, no, couldn't be any other tribe, has to be the tribe of Judah. Judah is the royal tribe, that's the kingly tribe, and it would not be fitting for a king to be born to any tribe, but the kingly tribe's got to be Judah.

[25:39] Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. He must be born a direct descendant of David, the king.

[25:52] He has to have David's DNA, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's DNA. He's got to be a direct descendant of David so he can be referred to as David's greater son.

[26:09] And Christ was. He must be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. But thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me who is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting.

[26:29] Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And many didn't understand that. I remember, I think it was Philip, he didn't understand that, when he was told that, come, see, you've got to hear this guy.

[26:43] You've got to hear this. He is, he's, he's, he's, I think he's the Messiah. I really think he's the one. Who are you talking about? Talking about Jesus of Nazareth. Are you kidding me?

[26:56] Could any good thing come out of Nazareth? He can't be the Messiah if he's from Nazareth. That's up in the Galilee. And Galilee is right next door to the Gentiles.

[27:08] Nazareth is so contaminated with Gentilism, God would never allow the Messiah to be born in Nazareth. Don't give me this stuff. Messiah in Nazareth. You're ridiculous. Well, he wasn't born in Nazareth.

[27:20] He was born in Bethlehem. He was raised in Nazareth, but he had his royal beginnings in Bethlehem, the city of David.

[27:32] And Bethlehem means the house of bread. I love that house of bread. Jesus was the bread of life. And he must be preceded by Elijah and identified as the Messiah to Israel.

[27:46] But Elijah's gone. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire, removed from the earth.

[27:59] And where is Elijah? If he's to be introducing the Messiah, I know. John, the baptizer, came in the spirit and power of Elijah.

[28:12] And when his own disciples asked Jesus about this and about the end time, and they said, well, why do the scriptures say that Elijah must come first to introduce the Messiah?

[28:23] Jesus said, John is Elijah, if you will accept it. Jesus had his own Elijah in the person of John, the baptizer.

[28:35] And if you look at their basis of operation and their methodology and everything, they were strikingly similar. So he was on the scene. And the question was, in connection with all of these qualifications that the Messiah must have, did Jesus have them?

[28:53] Was he an acceptable candidate? Indeed. If he did, if Jesus of Nazareth did meet all of these qualifications, then there's this one question.

[29:08] then where is the kingdom that he's supposed to bring? Because everything continues just like it was. The Romans are still here with all of their paganism and idolatry.

[29:23] We are still oppressed by Rome. We are still downtrodden. We still die daily. We still are starving. We still are lame. We are blind. We are... Where is the kingdom if he's the king?

[29:38] You might answer that question with the question, where is Israel's repentance? Do you know what John consistently called the nation of Israel to?

[29:53] Repent. Repent. Change your mind. You people are wrong. You are thinking wrong. You are living wrong. And you are doing wrong. And if you expect this Messiah to have an interest in you and embrace you, you better get your act together.

[30:09] You need to do some serious soul searching and reverse yourself because you aren't measuring up now. And do you think anybody welcomes a message like that? They didn't welcome it then and they don't welcome it now.

[30:22] The only thing they really welcome now is I'm okay and you're okay. Well, if that's true, forget the repentance.

[30:33] There isn't any need for it. And you know what? If you are living in an age of moral relativism like we are today, it makes perfect sense to embrace that I'm okay, you're okay, we're all okay.

[30:47] Because we set our own standards for being okay. And I don't know what you think about yourself, but I think I'm a pretty great guy. That's where we are today.

[30:57] Israel's repentance as a nation was never realized, making it impossible for the kingdom of heaven to be established.

[31:11] How many times have I told you two things have to happen before the kingdom of heaven can come to earth? One, Jesus the Messiah has to die and pay the penalty for the world's sin.

[31:26] heaven so that God can judiciously, righteously lift the curse imposed upon the earth because scales of heaven have been balanced through the death of Christ.

[31:38] That's happened. The only thing that is left is the other prong. Israel must repent. Why do you think John made such an issue of repentance?

[31:49] Why do you think Jesus made such an issue of repentance? Why do you think Peter made such an issue of repentance when he uttered that plea on the day of Pentecost? Repent! Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[32:06] These guys had a song, played a violin with just one string on it. And it was repent, repent, repent. It was an appeal to the will. You'd better change your mind.

[32:18] And the reason you need to change your mind is because you've been given information that contradicts what you've always believed. You've been wrong. You are wrong. You need to change. You need to get right with God. That was the only message they had.

[32:32] It was the only message that was needed because once repentance is in place and the person gets turned around, then they're moving in the right direction.

[32:44] Until then, you're stuck on stupid. And that's where most of the population is. repentance. This repentance as a nation is still not realized, nor has the kingdom been established because of Israel's lack of national repentance.

[33:05] And again, the question is, well, Mark, you're saying this all hinges on Israel? Right! Right! Do you understand that? If you do, what a breakthrough, because most of the world doesn't.

[33:17] they see the isolated little Jew as nothing but a trouble spot, nothing but a thorn in the side of all the nations around them. And you'd be surprised how many people in the UN consider Israel the number one problem for the world.

[33:32] And they don't know that Israel is the number one solution. They don't know that. Israel remains a widely scattered people throughout the world.

[33:46] the day is coming when Israelites all over the world will be regathered in Israel and God will be preparing them for their national repentance immediately prior to Christ's second coming.

[34:05] And you know, for the first time today, there are more Jews residing in Israel than there are in New York City.

[34:18] That couldn't be said for the last hundred years, but now it is. And when Jews, when Jesus came the first time, all the controversy centered upon whether or not he was in fact the Messiah, the King of Israel.

[34:38] And if he was, this kingdom he announced, the same kingdom that John the Baptist announced, had to be very near. And if this is true, then the all-compelling question became, who will be the inhabitants of this glorious kingdom?

[35:01] When it is established, who gets to live in it? Who will be there? Who will be admitted to the kingdom? who will be granted entrance and who will be excluded?

[35:14] And why? On what terms? Now, this all translates to the issue of one's personal righteousness.

[35:25] Follow me carefully. God is righteous. Nobody has a problem understanding that. The kingdom of heaven will be a righteous kingdom, and only righteous people will be the inhabitants of this kingdom.

[35:44] But, how righteous must one be? This was the question on the heart and mind of every Jew.

[35:57] And again, let me add, Gentiles were oblivious to all of this. Didn't mean a thing to them. Righteous, but righteous according to what standard?

[36:13] Where? Or what is the model or requirement for what constitutes righteousness? Well, it's the righteous standard set forth by the law of God given through Moses, otherwise known as the Torah, the five books of Moses.

[36:35] But, what does the law of God through Moses actually require? What the law says is one thing, but what the law actually means is another.

[36:55] And by the way, every lawyer can tell you that. What the law says is one thing, what the law actually means, is another. So, who interprets the law so as to explain it?

[37:13] This was the quandary in the Jewish mind. Whose interpretation of the law is the right one? Well, who are the experts?

[37:26] Who are the pros? who are the people who devote themselves to nothing but the law and reading it and understanding it? The scribes and the Pharisees.

[37:40] They were the authorities. They were in the seat of recognized, acknowledged authority. Pharisee. If you wanted an opinion on whatever the law of Moses said, you went to a scribe or a Pharisee and they would tell you.

[38:00] This, now hear me, this very thing that we are talking about right now is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.

[38:11] it is about the kingdom of heaven and who is going to enter it and who is going to be excluded from it and on what basis.

[38:24] This is why the key verse to understanding all of the thrust of the Sermon on the Mount is 520.

[38:36] But I say unto you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter in.

[38:54] Now let me say this with crystal clarity. Jesus was not talking to you. He was talking to his own people.

[39:06] He was talking to Israel. He was talking to these Jews who were all plugged in about the kingdom and everything that accompanied it. I'm not saying the Sermon on the Mount doesn't mean anything to you.

[39:19] You can ignore it. We're going to see as we go through it, it is filled with wonderful principles that we need to emulate and put into our life. But we are not the primary audience.

[39:30] The audience to whom Jesus was speaking, they are the primary audience. And he was saying to those people in front of him, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[39:43] Well, we're not thinking in terms of entering into the kingdom of heaven. We are thinking in terms of entering into the body of Christ, which is not the same as the kingdom of heaven.

[39:55] We are thinking in terms of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do that, we are imputed a righteousness that is the righteousness of Christ.

[40:06] And you better believe that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. So in a sense, that is really true. What Jesus said to them is true of us. Unless your righteousness, you right here, Grace Bible Church, you people, individuals, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you're not going anywhere either.

[40:25] That's true. Because we all know how inadequate our righteousness is. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you receive his righteousness.

[40:37] And it isn't a matter of quantity. It's a matter of quality. It isn't how much righteousness he gives us. It's whose he gives us. And he gives us his own.

[40:48] And this means that in Christ, you are as acceptable to God as Christ is. That's what it means to be in Christ. It's incredible. wonderful.

[41:00] More than these Jews were ever able to contemplate. Because what they were thinking about was earthly, physical, material, plugged in right here and now. And what we are thinking of transcends the physical and the material.

[41:14] And we know these things are for our use and our benefit, but they're not what it's really all about. What it's really all about is the spiritual. spiritual. And most of the world doesn't understand that either.

[41:27] So, Christ goes on to relate the standard interpretation of the law by the scribes and Pharisees, and then he counters them with his own interpretation of the law.

[41:45] Please listen carefully. The pharisaical interpretation that given by the scribes and Pharisees was all about the letter of the law, nitpicking details filled with inconsistencies, loopholes, finagling, and contradictions.

[42:03] You get involved with these Jewish experts of the law, and they will have an issue so tied up in knots, nobody will ever be able to untangle it or figure it out. And it became a very frustrating thing.

[42:14] And the people never knew where they stood. Because all of these authorities that spoke with such great authority, frequently disagreed among themselves. Well, where does that leave the average Joe?

[42:26] If even the experts can't agree on these things, what am I supposed to believe? How am I supposed to know? How can I figure it out when they can't figure it out? We might ask the same of Congress, mightn't we?

[42:39] Yeah, how can we figure these things out? What do they got? 13,000 pages of regulations coming out with Obamacare.

[42:51] It makes my head hurt, and I haven't even seen page one. This is what the experts do. This is what the pros do. Can't make anything simple.

[43:03] If you make it simple, the common man might understand it, and our power goes right out the window. We've got to keep them dependent. Christ's interpretation of the same issues focused upon the intent and the spirit of the law, the real essence of the law of Moses.

[43:23] And here are the examples contained in Jesus' code of true righteousness. And I'm just going to read these to you. We'll take them one by one as they come.

[43:36] Six areas of dispute that were most under question. The first is the law of murder. You have heard that it has been said thus and so and thus and so.

[43:47] But I say unto you, they give the letter of the law, Christ gives the spirit of the law. Then there is the law of adultery.

[43:59] It has been said, but I say unto you, and then there is the law of divorce in chapter 5, verses 31 and 32.

[44:09] It is followed by the law of oaths where Christ says, let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. What does that mean anyway? So we will look at that. And the law of non-retaliation, and perhaps this is one of the thorniest of all.

[44:26] Whoever would smite you on the cheek, turn the other cheek. What do you do with that? Do you realize that it is on the basis of these verses and the interpretation thereof that much of the Amish and old order, and the non-violent conscientious objection source base their theology?

[44:54] It is the law of non-retaliation or the law of non-resistance. How valid is that? If somebody smites you on the cheek, will you really turn the other cheek?

[45:05] And should you? And if it doesn't mean that, why does it say that? That's confusing. So, we will examine that, and then the law of love is the last of the sixth, and all of these comprise the essence of the Sermon on the Mount.

[45:25] And it will be very enlightening, and in some instances quite remarkable, and I say that with confidence because it already has been that to me.

[45:37] and I have embarrassed myself by some of the things that I've learned in comparison to what I thought I knew before. But maybe you'll find the same kind of reaction, I trust.

[45:50] Is there a quick question or comment? The clock says go, but is there anyone? And by the way, in case you didn't realize it, I didn't get to my message this morning.

[46:04] It was going to be on, it was going to be on light and salt, but it will be upcoming. And it too is, and by the way, there is a wonderful example of something that was delivered to that primary audience, you are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth, and it translates beautifully today to the body of Christ, you, by way of application.

[46:30] Now, Jesus isn't talking about you and me in so far as interpretation is concern. The interpretation is he was talking to Israel and he was telling them as a Jew, you are the light of the world, because he raised them up to be a light.

[46:47] God says, I have raised you up to be a light to the Gentiles, and they were supposed to be the salt of the earth. They aren't doing much of that right now. But by way of application, not interpretation, you are supposed to be salt of the earth.

[47:07] You are the light of the world, and we are to let our good works, let our light shine so that the world may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

[47:17] So the end result is the same. So we will see, I trust, many instances of application even though the interpretation is not for us. Would you stand with me, please? Father, we recognize that much of this content has been repetitive, but we do not apologize for repetition.

[47:39] It is the mother of learning. Thank you for the patience of these people and for their accommodation to the word and for their response to it and their love for it.

[47:51] Thank you for the love that you've given them for each other. we want it to abound and increase all the more. And may that be just one of the fruits that comes from our exposition of this delightful but often confusing passage from the word.

[48:12]  We bless you for it all in Christ's wonderful name. Amen.